About Stanthorpe Today

Stanthorpe Today

Overview

Stanthorpe Today is a weekly newspaper serving Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt district of Queensland's Southern Downs, published in print and online by Star News Group as part of its Queensland "Today" stable of independent regional newspapers. It is a distinct masthead with its own journalists, its own website at stanthorpetoday.com.au and its own print edition for the Granite Belt, although it is produced from a joint Southern Downs newsroom shared with its sister paper Warwick Today, and its stories also appear on the shared warwicktoday.com.au platform recorded in this profile's website field.

The paper covers the southern half of the Southern Downs Regional Council area — Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt townships and localities around it, including Applethorpe, Amiens, Ballandean, Glen Aplin, Dalveen, Severnlea, Pikedale and Wallangarra near the New South Wales border — a high-country district known for apples, stone fruit, grapes and wine, vegetables and cool-climate tourism.

History

Stanthorpe Today's immediate predecessor was the Southern Free Times, a free weekly published by Star News Group covering both Warwick and Stanthorpe. The district's historic paid newspaper, the Stanthorpe Border Post, had lost its print edition in News Corp Australia's June 2020 regional restructure, when News Corp made the Border Post digital-only along with dozens of other regional titles, leaving the Granite Belt without a printed local newspaper of its own.

Star News Group had moved quickly when the 2020 closures were announced: industry journal GXpress reported in June 2020 that Star's Paul Thomas — identified there as the owner of Noosa Today and Warwick's Southern Free Times — was already fielding approaches from communities along the coast wanting local print newspapers restored, and Star had returned Noosa Today to print within days of News Corp ending the Noosa News print edition. In February 2021 Star News Group split the Southern Free Times into two mastheads, creating Warwick Today for Warwick and Stanthorpe Today for Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt. The Public Interest Journalism Initiative's Australian Newsroom Mapping Project recorded the change in its August 2021 report, classifying the two titles as an increase in service formed out of the demerger of the Southern Free Times. An April 2021 Country Press Australia authorisation application likewise lists "Warwick Today/Stanthorpe Today" under Star News Group at 24 Palmerin Street, Warwick. The split gave Stanthorpe a masthead of its own for the first time in the Today era, with journalism directed specifically at Granite Belt readers rather than shared across the whole Southern Downs.

The title was part of the broader expansion in which Star News Group and its Today News Group partners re-established independent print newspapers in Queensland markets where News Corp had withdrawn from print in 2020 — among them Rockhampton, Gladstone, Bundaberg, Gympie, Noosa and Ipswich. The group's journalists have been recognised within the industry: at the Queensland Country Press Association's 2022 Media Excellence Awards, Dominique Tassell of Warwick & Stanthorpe Today placed third for Young Journalist of the Year for a portfolio covering controversial issues and human-interest stories across the community.

Programming and Content

Stanthorpe Today's reporting is centred on the Southern Downs Regional Council and the rural industries of the Granite Belt. Its journalists report council meetings in detail — budgets, rates and water charges, infrastructure decisions and planning applications — alongside water security, a defining local issue in a district that has lived through severe drought and debated the proposed Emu Swamp Dam. Agricultural coverage reflects the Granite Belt economy of orchards, vineyards and vegetable growing, and the paper covers courts, schools, health services and emergency services across the district.

Community and cultural life fills out the edition: the Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Harvest Festival, the Border District Eisteddfod, the Big Chilly Sing and local historical and personal features, such as a 2024 profile marking 90 years of connection to the Pikedale property district. Its news reporting ranges from the proposed relocation of Gunn's Cottage as part of the Girraween National Park visitor-area redevelopment, to the long-running community campaign over the locked pedestrian walkway on Carnarvon Bridge, to council decisions on Australia Day celebrations and the selection of Dalveen as host village for the council's civic event. Rural reporting — water allocations, road funding, agricultural shows and field days across the Granite Belt and the Traprock country to the west — is a constant thread. Since 2024 the paper has carried a monthly "Sustainability Matters" column by the Granite Belt Sustainable Action Network, addressing land restoration, drought resilience, biodiversity and water policy; the column was still appearing in the paper in October 2025. Photography is part of the newsroom's output — the Stanthorpe RSL Sub Branch's September 2025 newsletter credits a Stanthorpe Today photographer, Samantha Wantling, for its service photographs.

Audience and Reach

Stanthorpe Today is the Granite Belt's own printed newspaper, circulating in Stanthorpe and the surrounding townships of the southern Southern Downs, a district whose economy rests on horticulture, viticulture and tourism and whose population is spread between the main town and small rural communities along the New England Highway corridor to the New South Wales border. No independently audited circulation figure for the individual title has been published. At group level, the Today newspapers' publishers claimed in 2021 that more than 30,000 copies were distributed through Today newspapers and strategic drop-off points across Queensland; that figure is the group's own, dates from 2021, and is not a Stanthorpe-specific number.

Digital Presence

Stanthorpe Today publishes online at its own domain, stanthorpetoday.com.au, which the Australian Communications and Media Authority's register of eligible news businesses lists as the content link for the Stanthorpe Today news source under Star News Group Pty Ltd. Its stories are also carried on the shared Southern Downs platform at warwicktoday.com.au, where Stanthorpe and Warwick content appears side by side; the same story frequently appears under both domains, reflecting the joint newsroom. Article-tracking services record Stanthorpe Today stories through 2025, covering council decisions, rural property and water issues and community events, and the paper maintains a social media presence through which its stories are promoted.

Ownership and Organisation

Stanthorpe Today is owned by Star News Group Pty Ltd, the independent, family-owned publishing company headquartered at Pakenham in Victoria and founded in 1909. On the ACMA register of eligible news businesses, Star News Group Pty Ltd's registered news sources include Stanthorpe Today, Warwick Today and Noosa Today among 17 newspaper mastheads, with the group's managing director Paul Thomas — a fourth-generation newspaperman — recorded as the contact; the registration is dated 6 January 2026. The Queensland Today titles operate with the support of Star News Group's shared production, technology and administrative services under the Today News Group model, while editorial content is produced locally. Stanthorpe Today is produced from the joint Southern Downs newsroom recorded at 24 Palmerin Street, Warwick, in the group's 2021 industry filings, with journalists including Jenel Hunt, whose Stanthorpe Today reporting on council and community affairs is extensively documented, working across the Warwick and Stanthorpe titles.

Contact and Availability

Stanthorpe Today is published weekly in print for Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt and continuously online. Its own website is stanthorpetoday.com.au; its stories also appear on the shared Southern Downs site, warwicktoday.com.au. The Southern Downs newsroom address recorded for the Warwick and Stanthorpe titles is 24 Palmerin Street, Warwick, Queensland. The paper was publishing current local journalism as recently as October 2025, when its monthly sustainability column appeared, and it remains a registered news source of Star News Group on the ACMA register dated January 2026.